This started as a way to stay in touch w/ my family/friends in MN when I moved, then morphed into my personal outlet after discovering I'm an autism mom. I do talk about other stuff...sometimes....maybe...

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Thursday, December 01, 2011

She sleeps all nite now

If I haven't mentioned it yet (I get this and my FB postings confused sometimes), Joe and I converted our overlarge walkin closet into Zbear's new room. It is awesome. She doesn't wake up around 3-4am anymore because either Joe or I snorked loudly in our sleep (to be honest...it's prolly ME that wakes her up...I am a wrecking ball when I sleep....Joe occasionally has to run away to the couch cuz I'm all over the place....)

Well, she just loves her new room, she likes to play in there by herself...Bub keeps trying to sneak into her room and steal the toys we have decided to make exclusively for Zbear. Bub has toys he WILL NOT SHARE. EVER. TOUCH ONLY IF YOU WANT TO BE HIT. yeah. yayee autism OCD rituals based on toys. Joe and I want to be equitable w/ our kids. We will never be fair. It will always be impossible to be fair when their needs and levels of expectations will always be SO incredibly different. (I will not kid myself about the differences in my kids...not gonna do it...) So to be equitable, we have decided Z will have 2 or 3 toys that stay in her room, and that Bub can't play with unless she brings it out of her room for him to play with.

Now this resolve is kinda hard, because Bub and Z are starting to enjoy the same kinds of toys, but in different ways. Bub still really enjoys toys appropriate for 18+ months, but then he also enjoys toys appropriate for his our age group (7 y/o), but he still has some toys from when he was 2 y/o that he will not let go...they are too important to him, the elaborations he sets up with them are too ingrained into his self-ness, I have replaced these toys several times w/ exact replicas as they got loved-on too hard (or covered in poo...sometimes cleaning is not a viable option.....) So he's grabbing her age appropriate toys and doing his elaboration thing with them, Z is not getting what he is doing and does her deconstructionist act on his elaboration which then ends in multiple kids crying, small toddlers being picked up haphazardly and bounced on the couch, and a 7 y/o banging some portion of his body against the wall. We like to avoid these activities when possible.... So we pretty much keep special toys in the appropriate rooms and have only generic non-attachment formed toys out in the living room and attempt to keep the siblings out of the other's room. Not an easy task. Sometimes Bub wants Z in his room, but then he changes him mind abruptly and she gets upset when he's pushing her out.

we stay busy while they are awake....can you tell? But so far the new room for Z is working out splendidly. We have a child-free bedroom once more and are pretty happy about it.

Past quotes I still like...

Joe: "I don't want him to be a wizard"Me: "what are you talking about"Joe: "Nevermind, I must be dreaming again"Me: "Good, I don't want our kids wizards"Joe: "Well Zber is a goblin...."

Really? I guess this is what happens when Joe watches Lord of the Rings....*sigh*__________________________________________

"When I was a little boy, my grandmother would use a red puppet to take things out of the oven, then she would chase me around the house with the red puppet on her hand screaming, "MY TONGUE IS BURNT! MY TONGUE IS BURNT!!'"

Some radio DJ________________________________________Go find the man who can fit my shoes, the left one's old and the right one's new, and I got the right one just for you.